- September
- 23
More of Rockland’s homeowners are being stretched to the limit, as the costs of mortgages continue to increase despite declining home values. Last year, 29 percent of Rockland’s residents reported spending 35 percent more of their income on mortgages, an increase of 3 percent over the previous year. At the same time, the median price of a home fell $13,400, according to new data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. How much is the burden on homeowners and renters? Here’s a glimpse:
Median home values:
2007: $503,100
2006: $516,500
Median monthly mortgage:
2007: $2,556
2006: $2,504
Median rent:
2007: $1,206
2006: $1,170 (43 percent of renters are spending 35 percent or more of their income on rent)
Other details from the 2007 American Community Survey:
Population that is foreign born: 21.3%
Population that speaks Spanish at home: 11.%
Median household income: $81,809
To read more about the housing burden, check out today’s article written by my colleague, Dwight R. Worley: Values fall; mortgages and rents are up .
The Journal News has prepared an interactive database showing the housing burden, along with numerous other statistics, including the percentage of people who speak Spanish, poverty levels, educational levels, etc. The data covers counties and communities with 65,000 or more in population, including Clarkstown and Ramapo. You can also compare Westchester with Bergen County, N.J. and Fairfield County, CT. along with others throughout the state.
You can find that database here: Housing costs: See which NY communities have the highest burdens.
Posted by Cathey O'Donnell on Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008 at 10:54 am |
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- September
- 11
We promised we would never forget those who lost their lives seven years ago today. They were our loved ones, our friends, our colleagues and our neighbors — each one of them made an impact on our lives, each one had an incredible story to tell. In all, 87 people from Rockland, or who had ties to Rockland, perished in the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
To honor them, I have prepared an interactive tribute that tells their stories as they were first reported in The Journal News seven years ago. In many cases, we also have original photographs as they were submitted to us in the days and weeks that followed. Those without photographs are remembered with a photo of the Rockland County Sept. 11 memorial.
This tribute gives you the chance to see who died from your local community, town or village, along with the 248 victims from the Hudson Valley.
You can view the tribute here: Sept. 11: A tribute to victims from the Hudson Valley.
There’s Welles Crowther, graduate of Nyack High School, the hero in the red bandanna who worked as an equity trader for Sandler-O’Neill & Partners.
Welles Crowther
And Andrew Fredericks from Suffern, an New York City firefighter who gained a national reputation as a lecturer on fire training. He and 24 other New York City firefighters from Rockland died that day.
 Andrew Fredericks
And Janet Alonso of Stony Point who left a husband and two children.
Janet Alonso
And David Ortiz of Nanuet, a locksmith with the Port Authority of New York-New Jersey.
David Ortiz remembrance.
We will never forget their stories.
Posted by Cathey O'Donnell on Thursday, September 11th, 2008 at 11:29 am |
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- May
- 2
Posted by Amy Padnani on Friday, May 2nd, 2008 at 12:32 pm |
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- April
- 25
Posted by Amy Padnani on Friday, April 25th, 2008 at 8:23 am |
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- April
- 11
Posted by Amy Padnani on Friday, April 11th, 2008 at 8:05 am |
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- April
- 10
Some of you might remember how several residents on a Congers street were fuming when they found out that Orange and Rockland Utilities planned to remove 50 to 70 trees in their neighborhood. I wrote about it last summer and staff writer Hannan Adely recently wrote about similar issues in Orangetown and Clarkstown:
Trees come down; homeowners not happy
Residents have two more weeks to fight tree clearing
You can also check out a video of a recent protest in Blauvelt here.
Now that the issue has resurfaced, Clarkstown Supervisor Alexander Gromack said he plans to reach out to the state Public Service Commission again to ask them to reconsider the tree removal policy. He also said he wrote a letter today to Gov. David Paterson seeking his support.
Gromack said in a statement: “While we work to preserve open space, the PSC mandates the destruction of trees. That doesn’t make any sense.”
Last summer, Gromack wrote to the PSC when he found out that hundreds of trees were slated for removal. He asked the state to revert back to the tree trimming policy they instituted prior to the blackout in 2003, which was caused when a tree fell on transmission wires in Ohio. The state never responded. We’ll have to see what happens this time.
Posted by Amy Padnani on Thursday, April 10th, 2008 at 6:24 pm |
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- February
- 15
Posted by Amy Padnani on Friday, February 15th, 2008 at 10:29 am |
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- February
- 7
The good folks on our data desk put together PDFs of the vote totals for each candidate in the Super Tuesday primary by town and Congressional district. You can download Rockland’s here.
In addition, you can see how things went Tuesday in both Westchester and Putnam.
Photo by Peter Carr/The Journal News.
Posted by Amy Vernon on Thursday, February 7th, 2008 at 4:01 pm |
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